for all those with this TV, I noticed that when I watch 4:3 content and switch the picture size to "full", a bit of the left and right portion of the picture gets cut off, does this happen to you? Is this normal? Also, watching ABC HD broadcast, I noticed the cut off too. Some of the logos on ABC HD gets cutoff and this has me worried a bit.

When you guys watch HD content or WS programming, do you notice any cut off?

I bought this as a cheap alternative to play my xbox 360 on but since I don't have my 360 yet (fck you MS), I don't know if the picture will get cut off when playing games as well.

You know what's interesting on Black Friday night at Wal-Mart. Almost all of the shoppers took home either the SV2000 20" TV/DVD combo ($98) or Symphonic 23" TV ($99). Both are made by Funai. The store was so crowded and there were Funai TV boxes blocking everyone's way. People were smashing other people's TV boxes to get out of the way. I was surprised that Funai has a very high supply rate of televisions. Funai must be making big bucks. Sounds like all of the bargain consumers are not ready for HDTV yet.

I was lucky to get the Symphonic 15" LCD TV, and it only cost $178 (before tax). Someone put it aside and didn't want it, so I quickly snatched it. I realized that this was the last one. The only thing I missed getting is the Symphonic DVD recorder/VCR combo ($167). It was sold out. :( It would have been a perfect match for the TV.

You know what's interesting on Black Friday night at Wal-Mart. Almost all of the shoppers took home either the SV2000 20" TV/DVD combo ($98) or Symphonic 23" TV ($99). Both are made by Funai. The store was so crowded and there were Funai TV boxes blocking everyone's way. People were smashing other people's TV boxes to get out of the way. I was surprised that Funai has a very high supply rate of televisions. Funai must be making big bucks. Sounds like all of the bargain consumers are not ready for HDTV yet.

I was lucky to get the Symphonic 15" LCD TV, and it only cost $178 (before tax). Someone put it aside and didn't want it, so I quickly snatched it. I realized that this was the last one. The only thing I missed getting is the Symphonic DVD recorder/VCR combo ($167). It was sold out. :( It would have been a perfect match for the TV.

Wow, walt, sounds like a real fun day. So you moved up from a 13" Sylvania to a 15" Symphonic. Good for you, I bet you that gives you that 'you are there' feeling. Kind of a far cry from a 34" $1200 Toshiba though isn't it?

Gee, I hope no one cracked the casing on your TV as "people were smashing other people's TV boxes". You might want to check for cracks before you take it apart this time. You have quite the knack for getting "the last one" also. We'd like to hear all about your 15" Symphonic, the parts inside, and whether any parts are outsourced on your new purchase as soon as possible.

Well, I've been watching movies more the better part of today. I watched Star Wars Episode 3, Finding Nemo (looked killer!), Saving Private Ryan (the blood really stands out now :D) and Fifth Element (WoW!!). I have yet to get ahold of either avia or the other one. But I have the other one in my netflix que. And my buddy has avia. So as soon as I get a calibration dvd in the player and time to go through it I'll post again.

So far though, the only thing that is kinda somewhat of a bother is the black has a red hue to it. But when you watch a movie it's black. It's kinda weird but That is the only gripe that I have about this tv. And maybe it's a calibration issue. I have everything set to 50% in the video options. For the money this TV truely was worth the hassle!! I heard somewhere that it will even up convert 720p to 1080i. I wish there was a way to trick it into displaying my dvd's in 1080i. I'm just currious to see the difference between 480p and 1080i :D

If you bought one of these tvs on black friday, You Got One Hell Of A Deal In My Book!!!

boy, wookie - dunno about that. I also got the 30" on BF - great price for a 30" widescreen HD, but the picture leaves a lot to be desired. Since so many electronic items are rebadged, and put together from stock components, I am amazed at how poor the picture quality is on the Insignia. As has been said, the ota tuner is the worst I have seen in 40 years - the UHF section is quite good, but the VHF section is virtually non-existent.

Much worse is the geometry - there is a lot of overscan, and while there is adjustment for it, even at full reduction there is still quite a bit. More bothersome to me is the horizontal pincushion. I have had 300 dollar Sharp sets purchased at Wally World that were better....I'm talking about over 1/2" off true vertical on the edges.

And as others have noted - it seems they have used SD instead of HD colorspace for the component inputs - there is quite a bit of green push on the HD signal over component, and I have not found any user adjustments to even begin to correct this.

And finally - afaic, the onboard scaler is a joke. The HD picture isn't bad when fed 1080i; however, when I changed output on the settop box to send the Insignia 720p, text displayed on the tv was barely legible. Not even the OSD menus were clear - I think we can assume that the set's "native" resolution is 1080i.

I'm sorry, but in this case, I'm not sure if I got my money's worth, even at the BB net price of $340. If it wasn't so danged heavy (147 pounds) and I hadn't had to carry it up 1 and a half flights of stairs, it would be going back.

As it stands, does anyone have any ideas on how to enter an advanced setup menu? Really need to fix the pincushion and the green push. If all you are going to do is play games, then only the overscan will bother you - nobody is going to care if the colors on Halo are a bit greener than normal, or if the trees on the side of the screen aren't exactly straight. But if you are planning on viewing television or dvds on this unit, be prepared for a grossly substandard experience.

(I had a Sony 30" XS lined up - however, wife didn't want to spend the extra 500 bucks just for a tv for the bedroom. I agreed, but now wish I had gone for something in between the cheapest thing I could find, and the best.)

Sounds like you got a bad one. I also picked up one of the IS-TVHD30's and I am quite pleased with the IQ. I don't notice any of the issues you have mentioned, other than the weight of the unit! Man I almost killed my back getting that into my entertainment center by myself.

I haven't tested the OTA tuner since I'm only using a cable feed, when I changed my settop box to output 720p everything looked fine to me. Perhaps you got a lemon? I wouldn't look forward to bringing it back to the store for service, but just would like you to know that not all of them are bad.

I also picked one up on BF. I agree, pincushion is bad, very noticable on 4:3 material.

The bigger concern, however, on my set, is that on some channels, it looks as if the picture "jumps". It's very suttle, and it's only on certain programs (noticed it on an ESPN HD BB game). D* HD being fed through component. Anyone else having this issue?

HD quality is average, nothing great, nothing terrible. Get what you pay for, but I couldn't pass it up on the price.

I only use my set for watching DVD's. Before this one I had a 27" RCA from like 1998. Sooo this is light years ahead of what I'm used to seeing. I didn't notice any green push. nor any pincushioning. As I stated, the only thing that I noted is the red hue when the tv displays a black screen. This weekend I'll have avia and the other dvd calibration disks. I'll see if I can get it dialed in better. If I can't then I'll see what best buy has for crt projection's in the 51" size. I had to lug this up 2 flights of stairs. And then build a tv stand for it. and I moved it on and off that like 5 times while the gf's saying "maybe this" arrgh.

If I take it back I"m getting something else, something bigger. But as for right now I just can't justify the huge cost differences between the 30" and a 51". Not to mention a crt vs crt or lcd projection.

I'll stand by what I said. FOR THE MONEY this tv is a good buy. But if you want a 34" and you have the 1200 bucks get the panasonic TAU !!

[quote=oktoberrust11]Has anyone had any luck finding the correct remote codes for this TV? I have a DirecTV H20 receiver, and Insignia isn't one of the options when selecting my brand of TV.

Somewhere on this forum it was said that Sansui or Orion was making Insignia's. My Yamaha manual listed code, # 0490, under Sansui and Orion. It worked for basic stuff, channel & volume up/down, display time, channel swap. Sansui only had one code # and the other Orion code #'s didn't work.

FOX HD for the NFL can't touch CBS. It has nothi ng to do with the conversion CBS is just the king when it comes to HD NFL.

Usually in this order for NFL HD video quality:

CBS
ABC-mnf
ESPN - SNF
FOX

ABC and ESPN are a toss up.

I have to disagree with you rankings. I personally think ESPN/MNF are kings of HD sports. I would put cbs second, fox third and nbc sports HD dead last. Most agree MNF/SNF are the best in their opinion.

I just got a 27" 4:3 Insignia crt hdtv and I love it. The picture quality is very good, I had some red push but was able to correct it. This took the place of a 27" Samsung "slmfit" hdtv which was utter crap.

I just picked up a xbox 360 today. I bought Tomb Raider: Legends and Project Gotham Racing 3. I get it home, hooked it up to my insignia 30" crt HDTV. I then went into the 360's configuration and set it to output to 1080i. It did that no problem. I then chose 720p. It also did that to. I thought that CRT sets could not display 720p? But mine flickers as it is switching over then in the upper right corner is says 720p-60. Same thing when I switch it to 1080i. The screen flickers, then it says 1080i-60. Has anyone else noticed this? Is the 60 denoting that it is 60hz? that would be progressive scan then. as interlaced is 30hz.

Either way both games look killer at 1080i on this set. And for 399.99 when I bought it I am not mad that it does not have hdmi. I do not beleive that hdmi is needed. Rather it is a marketing scheme. I have seen 1080i and 720p over hdmi and component. And I do not see a difference. Espcially for the costs of the set that have hdmil. The cheapest one being the samsung 30" slimfit HD crt set. 899.99 is the cheapest. The insignia has been said to have a samsung tube and other hardware in it.

I have to disagree with you rankings. I personally think ESPN/MNF are kings of HD sports. I would put cbs second, fox third and nbc sports HD dead last. Most agree MNF/SNF are the best in their opinion.

I agree along with about 90 percent of HD viewers. MNF and SNF was the best.
NBC HD sports is dead last. I did see the Preekness and for once the PQ was very good. Lets hope that NBC can carry that over to SNF.

ok ive heard alot and looked at a lota stuff saying u can use an hdtv as a computer monitor does anybody know that even with the component hookup as appossed to the DVI that this is missing wether or not the Insignia would be suitable

Well I have a pc hooked up to my insignia. I'm using a ATI 9800 Pro with the dvi to component converter from ATI. I can turn on the pc and the tv will display bios all the way to a desktop. I run my desktop at 1280x720@60hz no problems at all. I can run games at 1920x1080@60hz without a problem also. Most not playable though :D Overall I'm glad that I bought this tv for at the time 399.99 NEW. If you wanted a cost effective pc monitor it's an option. Now how long it would be able to take those resolutions at that refresh rate I do not know. But I will find out :D